On Friday, December 22, a robotic cargo ship bid farewell to the International Space Station (ISS) as it embarked on its journey towards a planned, controlled re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, scheduled for early 2024.
Northrop Grumman’s uncrewed Cygnus NG-19 spacecraft gracefully departed from the ISS at precisely 8:06 a.m. EST (1306 GMT) on Friday. The Canadarm2 robotic arm executed the release flawlessly over the north Atlantic Ocean, a mere minute past the expected schedule, as confirmed by NASA’s Rebecca Turkington during a live stream on NASA Television.
NASA Expedition 70 astronaut Loral O’Hara, in awe of the release, shared her sentiments, stating, “That was a beautiful release from up here.” She added, “Congratulations to everyone on the ground who supported this mission,” maintaining a clear view of Cygnus from the ISS. “It’s beautiful.”
Cygnus had spent an impressive 4.5 months at the orbiting complex, following its arrival on August 4. During its stay, it transported an impressive payload of 8,200 pounds (3,800 kilograms) comprising hardware, supplies, scientific equipment, commercial products, and other cargo, according to NASA officials, as detailed in a December 20 release.
NG-19, the 19th commercial resupply mission conducted by Northrop Grumman, commenced its journey from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on August 1. It was aptly named after NASA astronaut Laurel Clark, who tragically lost her life, along with six other astronauts, during the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003. NG-19 also marked the final mission to launch on a version of Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket featuring a first stage manufactured in Ukraine.
The spacecraft was originally docked to the U.S. Unity module on the ISS’ Earth-facing port. To initiate its detachment, ground-based flight controllers directed the robotic Canadarm2 to execute the procedure and subsequently released the freighter. Prior to this maneuver, NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara was responsible for monitoring Cygnus’ systems during its departure from the space station.
The exact return date for Cygnus to Earth has not been disclosed. However, before its scheduled plunge into Earth’s atmosphere in early January, the spacecraft will perform undisclosed “secondary payload operations,” after which it will incinerate its cargo during re-entry.
During the live stream on NASA Television, Turkington confirmed that Cygnus has received authorization to conduct a new SAFFIRE fire experiment in the upcoming weeks. The Spacecraft Fire Experiments (SAFFIRE) enable the study of fire behavior in microgravity within a controlled environment. Cygnus has successfully conducted variations of this experiment multiple times.
Turkington stated, “This is the sixth and last of this series,” elaborating on the previous results that have contributed to testing flammability at varying oxygen levels, fire detection and monitoring, as well as post-fire cleanup capabilities.
In contrast, another commercial cargo craft currently active for NASA, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, is designed to safely return scientific payloads to Earth. It can withstand the fiery re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere and ultimately splash down in the ocean.
